


Fast

by Lokei



Category: Fantastic Four (Movieverse)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-28
Updated: 2007-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-19 02:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokei/pseuds/Lokei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny's got a revelation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fast

“I’m on to you, you know.” Ben’s voice drifted down to Reed’s ears.

Reed slid out from underneath the fuselage of his latest piece of work. “Sorry?”

“We both are,” Johnny added, sitting casually on the edge of the brushed metal surface and obviously pretending he didn’t see Reed’s wince.

“Are you going to tell me what you think you know or are you going to let me get back to work?” Reed looked at them and tried not to be alarmed at the nearly identical grins on their faces. “Pilots,” he muttered under his breath, and began to slide his toolbox back under the carriage.

“Oh no you don’t,” Johnny laughed and put a foot on its lid. “We have you figured out, Richards.”

“So you said, though I’m having more trouble figuring out what you’re talking about,” Reed sighed. Rare as it might be for him to wish it, and rarer still to admit it, Reed would be very happy if Sue walked in right now with a ready-made distraction.

“You—despite appearances—are a guy,” Johnny pronounced gleefully, and Ben snickered behind a giant orange hand as Reed glared at them both.

“What?” Johnny said, and Reed could practically see the light go on over his head. “Oh. Didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Scout’s honor.”

Reed rolled his eyes. “You’ve never been a Boy Scout, Johnny. So unless you have anything else enlightening to say, go away.” He stretched his arms to the other side of the undercarriage and pulled himself back under the metal framework, hoping that the removal of his fiercely burning face would mean the others had little reason to stay.

No such luck. Of course.

“No, really, man,” Johnny’s face appeared on the opposite side, dangling upside down mere inches from Reed’s own nose. He must have been lying completely across the midsection, much to Reed’s annoyance, but he wasn’t interested in the scowl on his “team leader’s” face.

“Seriously, behind the geek shirts and the blackboards and the language you think is English which no one else understands, Reed, you’re a guy.” Johnny was clearly still delighted. Reed wondered how long that delight would last if he touched the live wire in his hand to the metal under Johnny’s chin.

It would probably have no effect at all. Not that Reed would do it, anyway.

“I suppose you have evidence to back up your far-from-revolutionary claim?” Reed gave in and dropped his hands from the wiring, bending a little to look Johnny in the eye. “Other than the obvious biological indicators of which I am already aware?”

“Well,” Johnny looked as if hanging upside down conversing with someone who was lying under a giant hunk of sculpted metal was as normal as apple pie with vanilla ice cream. “First of all, the big guy and I both know it was you who put the badges on the uniforms, and while that could be misinterpreted as a scarily feminine need to accessorize, I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt because they have a surprisingly strong cool factor. I gave us the names, you gave us the look. Big Guy over there gave us the mascot. Ow!”

From the way the vehicle shuddered over his head, Reed was pretty sure Ben had just whacked Johnny. In the ankle, likely. On the other hand, Johnny was hanging there with his rear end in the air. Easy target.

“Secondly,” Johnny continued, grin returning as he mistook Reed’s smirk for something else, “upholding the traditional male role, you’ve stayed as far from the wedding planning as possible. Your hand may be in the room signing agreement, but the rest of you is stretched out the doorway.”

“I don’t think we’ve convinced him yet,” Ben added his weight to the frame above Reed and Reed held his breath until he was pleased to notice he was not about to be turned into Flat Stanley. “Go ahead and tell him your third piece of evidence, hot shot.”

“And thirdly and finally,” Johnny added with deliberate slowness, and then “Stop kicking me, Big Guy.”

Reed raised an eyebrow and scooted out, straightening up on the opposite side from Johnny and biting back a grin as Ben helpfully dumped Johnny to the ground. The younger Storm bounced back up and glared at Ben, but mercifully refrained from throwing a fireball at him. Reed decided to be grateful for small miracles as he crossed his arms and waited for Johnny’s big revelation.

“This,” Johnny said expansively, throwing his arms wide to encompass the object between them, not including Ben. “The pièce de resistance.”

Grimm made a noise that suggested he hadn’t expected Johnny to know a term like that, but Johnny smirked. “High school French. Good for more than just getting girls, though I didn’t know it at the time.”

“Your point?” Reed suggested, amused by now despite himself.

“This, man, proves it all. You don’t need to play dumb around the pilots, we know. It’s sleek, it’s got curves in all the right places. Might as well call it ‘she’ and name it Glamorous Glennis.” Johnny was practically bouncing by now. “You built us a flying car. And you made it a fast one. Really fast. I saw the plans.”

Reed shrugged, lips curving wryly. “I know whose fault that was,” he looked at Ben, but there was only humor left in his glance. “Besides, I had to make it fast. It won’t carry the weight of your ego otherwise.”

Johnny crowed. “Nah, man, I told you, we know. Behind all those schematics, you’re a guy with a fast car. And it’s about time.”


End file.
